Carl Atwood Wiley (December 30, 1918 – April 21, 1985) was an American mathematician and engineer.
He is most widely known as the originator of the solar sail concept as well as the inventor of synthetic aperture radar.
Wiley's research work began at the Air Force Aircraft Radiation Lab at Wright Field in 1941.
That same year Wiley posited the idea of solar sails in a science fiction story published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine entitled Clipper Ships of Space (originally titled Are the Clipper Ships gone forever?).
[4] In 1953 he left Goodyear to found his own company, Wiley Electronics in Phoenix, Arizona until it was bought out in 1962.